2010. Did we make contact? I have no idea, but a hell of a lot happened, I know that much. What was going on around here? Let’s see. I celebrated five years of marriage to my lovely wife, Marsha; we took a nice vacation to Vieques, Puerto Rico; we welcomed our 2nd daughter, Mila, into the world; I grew a beard; I wrote some music; I got better at JavaScript; I got promoted to lead front end developer at work; I built a modular synth; I bought a new audio interface; I bought some new headphones; I bought Max 4 Live; I built a pretty cool online scrapbook; I drank some beer. Some other things probably occurred that I can’t recall.  I spent the month of August by myself. I grew a beard back in January. You know, important stuff.

The big goal for 2010 I had set for myself was to write a song a month. Well, I didn’t quite get there, but I didn’t totally fail. I had a 50% success rate, which isn’t so bad. I mean, it’s not a passing grade or anything (I had a second child for god’s sake!), but I made progress. Progress is good. Carving away. Little by little. I learned some things, which is key. Constraints are a very good thing. Deadlines are a very good thing (sometimes). Song writing and song creation is not so easy. Continuous practice and repetition are the keys to creativity and improving your craft. It may not seem you like you’re improving day by day, but rest assured, over a period of time, you sure as hell are.

So what does 2011 have in store? I actually don’t know, believe it or not. What I aim to do though is continue writing music and learning my way around my modular synth and figuring out synthesis more. I believe I will stick with the song per month goal. It is not an overly ambitious goal, but it is not an afterthought either. I want to get better at song arrangement and composition. I’d like to create a song I feel good enough about to get it out on SoundCloud and pass around to friends.

I want to do a little more field recording. I was disappointed that the Blue Mikey 2 mic for iPhone turned out to not get such great reviews. I was hoping to use iPhone, along with the excellent FiRe recording app, as my field recording setup of choice since I always have my iPhone with me anyway. Wondering if I should try that mic anyway?

I also hope to spend some time digging into Max 4 Live. This is like opening Pandora’s box, but I am curious about sound design, the Live API, Processing.js, messing with video in an Ableton context, and other things I’m not even aware of yet.

I want to spend more time just listening to music. I know that sounds whacky, but it’s difficult to make time to just listen to music these days. I mean actively listen, not passively while doing something else (like work). I miss it.

From a web development standpoint, I’d like to iterate on my scrapbook project. I have a few ideas as to how to turn it into a more interactive “app” that people may enjoy. The iPad platform seems like it could be a good fit. But the desktop browser will work just as well.

I’d like to get a bit better at application design and object-oriented coding, at least as it applies to JavaScript. Well, PHP too, but that’s another matter. I’ve been working on a JavaScript-based media framework to support a handful of media players, such as a dynamic lead, carousel, photo galleries, audio and video players. It’s powered by jQuery and Ben Nadel’s excellent corMVC framework. I hope to begin rolling it out at work in the next month or so.

I also plan on taking a swing at design. I started a new design for my blog over the holidays, but the file got corrupted somehow, which made me sad, so I took a break. I intend on getting started back to that shortly. Once the design is complete I plan on building a new WordPress theme from scratch.

My other goal for 2011 is to take my family camping. Marsha and I love camping and we’re ready to introduce our daughters. We want to start them as soon as possible, so why not this year?

We also try to travel somewhere new each year. It may be Spain this time around.

I should probably exercise a little bit too. Time to get the bicycle out.

Well that’s enough about that, I could go on forever about things I’d like to do or get into, but ya gotta pick a few. I have some specific goals in mind for the year, and some more wide open areas I’d like to spend time exploring. Time to get out the project management software and prioritize.

Happy New Year.

Take 1

August 2010 Project

Notes:

• Sound quality is not too bad.
• Song develops nicely, but arrangement still isn’t there quite yet.
• Applied the Vintage Mastering 1 audio effect rack to Master track in Ableton. Made no adjustments to it.
• Exported from Ableton with no normalization. Sample rate 44100, No Dither.
• Opened exported Wav in Audacity. Applied normalization with -6DB DC Offset (still unclear about DC Offset) and then ran compression with default settings. Exported as MP3.

Take 1:

12 Songs in 2010: Edits as Opiates (Take 1)

Notes:

• Mixing and “mastering” is still somewhat cryptic to me. I have A LOT to learn.
• Still very tracky and loopy. I want my songs to develop more.
• Arangement continues to be an interesting challenge. I have a sense of how I’d like things, but I am not quite able to produce the results that I hear in mind yet.
• The tail was cut off, be sure to fix that up for Take 2.

Having a child is a wonderful gift, but it is no small task. Needless to say, my 12 songs project was temporarily interrupted, but I hope to get back on track for July.

Meet Mila Estrin Smith, born June 22, 2010 at 12:03AM

The first song, Kaos, which was released on Svek 012 on 10″ vinyl in 1997, was one of the first minimal house records that I picked up on and started my fantastic adventure through dub, minimal techno, house and beyond. Needless to say, this was a highly influential record for me, and if I remember correctly, the first Svek record I ever bought.

Svek 012 Record A-Side Artwork

Tracklist:

1. Stephan G & The Persuader – Kaos – Svek 012
2. Brommage Dub – Side B – Svek 013
3. J. Dahlback – The Lonesome Dub – Svek 008
4. J. Dahlback – What is the time, Mr. Templar – Svek 011
5. Stephan G – Shass – Svek 009
6. J. Dahlback & J.L. Huhta – Midnight Express – Svek 010
7. Szerementa Programs – Numume – Svek 044
8. Conceiled Project – Definition of D – Svek 040
9. Mr. James Barth – Part of Me – Svek LP001
10. Mr. James Barth & A.D. – Above the Skyline – Svek 025
11. A.D.N.Y – Mi Gente – Svek 018

Take 1:

2010 May Project (Take 1)

Notes:

• Kept April project mastering rack on master channel
• Applied Audacity’s default Normalize and Compressor effects to bounced wav, then exported from Audacity as MP3

Take 2:

2010 May Project (Take 2)

Notes:

• Extended ending since it was being cut off a bit early in take 1

Take 3:

2010 May Project (Take 3)

Notes:

• I reworked the beat repeat for the melodic bit

Take 1:

April Showers

Notes:

• Bounced/processed mp3 sounds considerably louder in iTunes this time around
• On master track in Ableton I used: compressor with Opto-Tight setting, default Limiter, PSP Vintage Warmer plugin with Mastering First Aid setting
• Added compressor with Gentle Squeeze setting on drum kick; added Dynamic Tube with Warm Tube setting on drum track
• Applied light EQ to each individual track as I understand EQing should be used at this point
• Rendered to disk from Ableton with Normalize set to off, exported as wav
• Opened wav file in Audacity, ran Normalize with default settings; then exported as MP3
• Highs are a bit high and have that near ear-piercing sizzling sound (not good in this case)
• Overall I am happy with the considerable gain in loudness of the MP3, but it is almost too loud
• I wonder if the electro bit at the end seems tacked on, or feels right; my decision I know, but I wonder
• Ends pretty abruptly

Take 2:

April Showers, Take 2

Notes:

• Removed the EQ from the open hihats, which improved the sizzling highs from take 1

My February experimentation did not lead to a complete song, but it did lead to an idea that was the birth of the March song project. So I’ll take that and keep on truckin. I’ll hopefully catch up down the road and sneak in an extra song at some point.

Take 1:

2010 March Project (Take1)

Notes:

• Used Vintage Mastering 1 effect rack with default settings on Master track
• Used basic EQ device on most individual tracks
• Exported audio as wav file from Ableton and turned Normalize OFF, bit depth at 32, no dither
• Normalized wav file in Audacity with default settings
• Exported as MP3
• Mixed entirely in headphones, probably a bad thing
• Could probably ditch or modify the filter automation on maracas
• Arrangement not too bad
• Sounds a little too compressed or processed or something

Take 2:

2010 March Project (Take 2)

Notes:

• Replaced Vintage Mastering 1 effect rack with Simple Mastering Chain rack, left with default settings except turned up the gain to 3.85dB
• Removed the filter automation from the maracas track
• Exported audio same as before
• Did not normalize in Audacity, just exported as MP3
• Sounds more natural, but much quieter than take 1 (when playing back in iTunes; it actually sounds better in browser)
• I do seem to hear some glitchy artifacts sprinkled throughout (clipping?)

Take 3:

2010 March Project (Take 3)

Notes:

• Returned to this song to try the final mix again after the April project (5/20/10)
• Added the “_My Mastering Rack” rack to the Master track
• Normalized, then Compressed the exported wav in Audacity; used default settings